As the UN considers a no-fly zone (and more) over Libya today, Qaddafi's forces move ever closer to the rebel stronghold of Benghazi. Some experts warn of a bloodbath if Qaddafi is not stopped--on February 22, Qaddafi himself declared he would "cleanse Libya house by house."
Foreign Policy reminds us "the first reason for U.S. inaction to prevent the mass killing of civilians is supposed lack of knowledge" and what senior National Security Council official Samantha Power pointed out in her book A Problem From Hell: "The most common response is, 'We didn't know.' This is not true...Because genocide is usually veiled under the cover of war, some U.S. officials at first had genuine difficulty distinguishing deliberate atrocities against civilians from conventional conflict."

Reports out of Tripoli say that people there are afraid even to watch television. Certainly there has been silence in Twitter corners. One of the last dispatches from @Abukhit was March 3: "What should we do?"